iDream Ice-Cream iScream

Edward Lear meets The Usual Suspects

The ozone is tainted with brimstone
As a movement is heard in the bay
The Valkyrie-Ride is stirring the tide
And whipping up fingers of spray
As twelve dark forms come swooping in
To greet the remains of the day

On their reinforced brooms
They zoom round the tombs
Scaring the bats and prowling cats
With their howls and scowls…
And bulk

Incredible hulks
They’re bruisers
Cruiser-weight hags
With saddle-bag thighs
And hard-hearted eyes
Tattoos on their fists
And chains on their wrists

The Devil’s Dolls are on their hols
It’s a coven of witches from Govan

Scotland’s austere at this time of year
For a high-flying bitch

And Holiday Which said here there was space
It’s the right place to be
A dream by the sea
A scream by the sea
With ice-cream

iDream Ice-Cream iScream

Bill Stickers

Life on the street has been fraught
Taught him to be tough
Cope with the rough-and-the-tumble
He’s learned not to grumble
Learned to have fun

He’s still on the run

Roofless and toothless
He hums as he gums up a poster
A right roller-coaster
A film at the Rex
(the rating is ‘X’)
‘Sick Squid’
Not much sex but squalor and squalls
And maritime brawls with belching squelching squid

iDream Ice-Cream iScream

From the Cutting-Room Floor

Sideways

I don’t like taking sides he sighed
There’s a left side and a right side
And a wrong side of course
There’s inside and outside
And no doubt
An inside-out
And there’s upside and downside
And upside-down

I don’t like taking sides he sighed
But if I have to choose
I’ll take the sea-side

iDream Ice-Cream iScream

Edward Lear meets The Usual Suspects

School Yard

I flick through the pages
There’s a chapter “School Ages”
Marked with a card
I read:

“School Yard”
Today it’s measured in metres
But the school yard is hard as a rule
For all of the young
Who are inching their way
Flinching at times while finding their feet
Fighting their fears
Hiding their tears
Sometimes for years